COSMIC WARWEAPONS OF THE GODS
The deities of ancient Greece resembled humans in several ways.
When the gods fought a war, the Greeks imagined them as beings in
human form, fighting with weapons. These weapons were made for
them by Hephaestus, the god of metalworking, craftsmanship, and fire,
who was a kind of celestial blacksmith. But the weapons of the gods
had powers that went far beyond earthly swords and daggers. When
Zeus wielded his thunderbolt or Poseidon struck his trident, the entire
cosmos shook. Hephaestus sometimes made armour for mortal heroes
like Achilles, and when a hero showed special prowess
in arms, people said his weaponry must have
been made by Hephaestus.
TYPHON AND THE WINDS
Gaia bore the fire-breathing monster Typhon, who
was the god of winds, with the intention of creating
a son so powerful that he could defeat the gods.
Some accounts say that after Zeus overcame him, he
was condemned to the Underworld. Other versions
of the story relate how he survived and went to live
on Mount Olympus. There he made peace with the
gods, occasionally giving birth to mighty storms
called typhoons.
Certain myths also
claim he dwelled in
Mount Etna where
he spewed out
smoke and lava.ATLAS
Son of the Titan Iapetus and a
sea nymph called Clymene,
Atlas ruled a large island
kingdom called Atlantis.
He had many subjects, but
they became degenerate, so
the gods decided to punish
them by destroying the entire
race. They sent a great flood that
killed all the people and sank the
island beneath the sea. Resentful
towards the gods at the loss of his
kingdom, Atlas led the Titans
in the Cosmic War. When
the gods won the war, they
punished Atlas for his part in
it by making him hold the sky
on his shoulders forever.Trident
Poseidon’s weapon
was the trident, which
he used to stir up
storms, to shake the
ground – thereby causing
earthquakes – and even to
fork up new islands from
the sea bed.Helmet
Hades’s helmet made him invisible,
so that he could attack his enemies
without being detected. Because
he ruled the dark realms of the
Underworld, Hades was never
depicted in ancient Greek art.Bearer of the skies
The celestial globe held
by Atlas was sometimes
mistaken for the Earth,
leading both to the belief
that he held the world on
his shoulders, and to the
use of Atlas’s name for
books of maps.Typhon in hell
In the most widespread
retelling of the myth,
Typhon was imprisoned
in the Underworld after
his defeat by Zeus.DISGUISES OF THE GODS
One enduring theme in Greek mythology is the way
in which the gods could disguise themselves. Deities
used their shape-changing ability to serve diferent
purposes – from fighting battles to pursuing loved
ones. When they were challenged by the monster
Typhon, all the deities except the brave Athena fled to
Egypt, where they disguised themselves as diferent
creatures and went into hiding.
However, Zeus eventually
forsook his disguise and came
forth to fight the monster. The normally brave Zeus disguised The ram
himself as a ram, a creature that was
aggressive and impressively armed
with a pair of horns.
The crow
While hiding, Apollo
took the form of a
crow, a rather unassuming
disguise considering that he
was the god of music.The cat
Artemis, who was a huntress and
the goddess of the chase, chose
to transform herself into a
cat, also a hunting creature.Thunderbolt
Zeus used a thunderbolt as his
weapon. As well as making the
whole sky shake with its power,
he could aim it with precision,
either to kill an opponent or to
shatter his opponent’s weapon.
17